Just Different
by xcountrygurlx
Summary: On the first day back to set to shoot season five, everyone notices something is different with Lucy. And not a good different. THIS STORY IN NO WAY REFLECTS THE ACTUAL LIVES OF THE ACTORS. Lucy & Ian. Lucian


DISCLAIMER: This is in no way a reflection of the actors real lives, or based on any factual events. Just for pure enjoyment

Ian's P.O.V.

Driving to work was the most peaceful part of my morning. It was 5 am, and we all had to be on set by 6 for our first day of season 5. We weren't filming or anything, just having a table read and fittings. I was excited to see everyone, it felt like I haven't seen any of them since we wrapped season 4. I had done a lot of traveling since we wrapped last season. I went to Europe for three weeks, but it still seemed too short. I spent a lot of time with my family, which was nice. Now we were back to shooting for the next nine months, which is always fun. I was closest with Lucy on set, obviously. You can only make out with a girl so many times before she becomes your closest friend on set. We spend almost 16 hours a day together during filming, but I hadn't really seen her much over our break. I was excited to see everyone, but her especially.

I pulled into the Warner Brothers lot and parked my car. I got out and stretched, only having woken up about half an hour ago. I readjusted the baseball cap on my head and went right to craft services to get a coffee. It was mostly crew who was on set, so I caught up with all of them before putting my jacket and things in my trailer. I ran into Shay on my way to the production room.

"Long time no see Shmian! How are ya?" She asked me, stopping to hug me.

"I'm better now that I'm back at work, how about you?"

"I'm excited for the new season, but I know once we start working 16 hour days I'll be cursing myself for saying that." She joked. She was right though, since we did block shooting, we all had to stay until turn around, which was often into the wee hours of the night.

"Tell me about it. Have you seen anyone else yet?"

"Well I was with Ash just the other day, we hung out all summer, but I just ran into Troian and guess what, Patrick proposed! How exciting is that?"

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed.

"So, no one's seen Luce yet?" I asked, trying not to make it obvious that I really only wanted to see her.

"I haven't heard from her all summer, I don't think many people have. I heard some things though from Marlene earlier, so we'll see." She shrugged.

"What do you mean you've heard some things? What does that mean?"

"I'm not really sure, Mar just said that when she met with her the other day to go over the script she seemed off. Who knows, maybe she was just having a bad day?" Shay suggested and I nodded.

"Well I gotta run, but I'll see you in there, alright?" She asked, already passing me. I smiled at her and made a point to stop at Troian's trailer on the way to the table read since I was earlier. I knocked on her door and she opened it quickly after.

"Ian! It's great to see you!" She pulled me into a hug.

"You too! And I hear congratulations are in order! I can't believe you're getting married!" I expressed and she nodded.

"Tell me about it. I was pretty shocked myself. I'm excited though."

"Good, Patrick's a good guy." I told her. We stayed in her trailer and chatted for a few minutes until we went to the production room where people were already starting to gather. I finally spotted Marlene.

"Ian Harding as I live and breathe, I can't believe it! It feels like it's been forever. How was your summer?" She asked, even though I had seen her a few weeks ago.

"It was fantastic, thanks. I was just wondering if you've seen Lucy yet?" I played with the label on my coffee cup to seem distracted.

"I haven't seen her yet, but I got word that she is on set, so she should be here soon. Have you seen her since we wrapped?" She asked slowly, looking me in the eyes.

"No, but I ran into Shay and she said that you told her she was different?" I questioned.

"Yeah, I can't really explain it, I guess you'll just have to see…" Marlene trailed off as we both saw her walk through the door. She had a bottle of water in her hand, which was different than the usual coffee. Her hair was limp and dull and her face had an ashen tone to it. Her face seemed sunken in a bit and she didn't have the glow that she usually has. Those were the first things that caught my eye, but I allowed my eyes to travel south. She was really skinny, like scary skinny. She was always a tiny girl, but I could see her collarbones peaking out from under her shirt now. She reached to pull her sunglasses off of her face, which exposed her midriff. Her hip bones protruded from her waist and were the only things that seemed to hold her jeans up. Her eyes met mine and I forced a smile. She smiled back, but the twinkle in her eyes wasn't there anymore. She looked almost sickly. I gulped as she made her way over to me.

"Hey Goose, how was your summer?" I asked, pulling her into a hug. I felt like she was just air between my arms, like I could crush her at any second.

"It was good, I tried to lay low and relax." She took the seat next to me and we didn't have much time to talk because Marlene wanted to start the table read as to get everyone into their fittings as soon as possible.

After running through the script, we were whisked off in separate directions for our fittings, but I managed to be in the same room as Ashley.

"Did you see Lucy?" She asked me, knowing the answer. Of course I had seen Lucy. Who hadn't? She stuck out like a sore thumb now.

"Yeah, I didn't really know what to say…" I thought it would be weird as a guy to say something about her "transformation," especially if there was something else going on.

"I hope nothing's wrong. She looks like she's been sick all summer. She's really thin." Ashley sympathetically smiled.

"Yeah, I got word from Mandi that she doesn't even fit into the 00 sized pants, and that's the smallest they make them," Josh, one of our stylists and fashion directors added.

"That doesn't even seem healthy..," I added.

"That's because it's not…" Ashley said. I sighed. It was the first day and we were already worried about her.

"Ian, a bunch of us talked about it, and we think you should talk to her…" Ashley said nervously.

"Me? Why? That's so awkward."

"Because you're closest to her." I rolled my eyes. Of course they decide to put me in the awkward position.

The fittings went by relatively quickly and we had to hang out for a few hours until our next production meeting while the crew reassembled the set.

I waited about a half hour and then went and knocked on Lucy's door. She didn't answer at first, but after a few more knocks I heard her moving around inside. She finally opened the door looking like a zombie.

"Hey Luce, can I come in?" I asked her and she softly smiled and pushed the door open wider.

"What's up?" She asked quietly.

"Were you asleep?" I asked her. That wasn't like her, she almost never slept unless it was a really late night, but we only got here an hour ago.

"It's okay, what's up?" She asked, sitting down on the small bed in the trailer.

"I'm just going to come out and say it, alright? Is something wrong?"

"What do you mean?" Her brows furrowed and she looked up at me from her spot on the bed.

"I mean, come on Luce, you had to know people were going to ask questions. We break for three months and then you come back looking like an anorexic zombie!" I said with a little more edge than I probably should have. I was just worried about her, but I knew that was the wrong approach.

"I'm fine." She snapped back.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that, but everyone's worried about you. You're different." I shrugged, feeling like this conversation was doing more harm than good.

"So I lost a few pounds, what's the big deal?" She rolled her eyes and picked up her phone.

"No, you didn't just lose a few pounds," I said, going to grab her hands. I stopped when I realized how tiny her wrists were. I could probably hold both of her wrists in one of my hands.

"Lucy, are you sick? Did something happen this summer?" I asked, grabbing both her hands in mine.

"Ian, please, I'm fine, and I don't want to get into this." She wouldn't look me in the eyes and I sighed.

"Okay…" I said defeated.

"Well I'll let you get back to your nap I guess." I said awkwardly and she stood up to show me out. She wobbled back and forth for a few seconds, grabbing the edge of the table to steady herself. I grabbed her arms and helped her regain her balance.

"Sorry, you know me, always a klutz." She joked. I gave her a sad smile to let her know that I saw right through her lie.

"I'll see you later." I said before leaving. On my way back to my trailer, I pulled out my phone.

"It's not good Ash…" I said when she picked up.

Lucy's P.O.V.

I managed to get back into my bed after showing Ian out. I would be mad about his accusations, but I didn't have the energy to worry about it. I was so tired, so as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep again.

I woke up to my phone blaring, and saw that it was Marlene calling. I glanced at the clock and saw that I wasn't late to our meeting.

"Hey Mar, what's up?" I answered.

"Hey Luce. Do you think you could maybe come to my office real quick?"

"Yeah, sure." I said and hung up. I tried to look more presentable since I knew Ian probably told Marlene I was dying or something. I love him, but he's so overprotective. I grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it over my head to hide my disheveled appearance and left my trailer.

I was exhausted by the time I got to her office across the lot. I knocked on the door before heading in without waiting for a response. Marlene's small office was filled with people and a bunch of chairs, with one open one, for presumably me. Joseph and Oliver were with Marlene, along with Ian and Ashley. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Lucy, take a seat. We have a few things to discuss." Marlene said and I sat down.

"So we wanted to talk about the direction that your characters are going to be taking this season. Obviously you were there for the table read, but this is more of a long term thing." Joseph announced, to which I felt relieved. This wasn't about what Ian approached me about earlier.

"Ashley, this season Hanna is going to go through a really tough time with Caleb coming back and how that sort of throws a wrench into the works with Travis. Both men will be fighting for your attention, but it is really taking an emotional toll on you this season." Ashley nodded.

"Ian and Lucy, you two are going to try and rebuild your relationship after Ezra is shot, but shortly after you agree to start over, Aria will find out she's pregnant. So most of the season will deal heavily with that twist, watching them go through the decision making process and everything. It's going to be a pretty heavy season for the two of you, but not as bad as last season. Think you can handle that?" Marlene asked. We both nodded.

"Good, alright, can you guys excuse us? We need to talk to Lucy." I noticed Ian and Ashley lock eyes before they stood up and closed the door behind them.

"Lucy, we don't want to seem like we're prying, but we all care about you tremendously, and we need to know if something's going on with you." Oliver spoke up.

"Nothing's going on, I promise." I played it off.

"Luce, here's the thing. You're going to be pregnant this season, but you're a stick right now. We need you to gain some weight, not only for Aria, but for your own health. You don't look like you're taking care of youself."

"So what're you saying?" I questioned.

"We need you to get healthy or we're going to have to put you on probationary leave. Since we're on ABC Family, we have to promote healthy eating habits, and it's obvious that you aren't healthy."

"So you're going to fire me because you think I'm too skinny?" I asked incredulously.

"We don't want you to get mad, but we just have your best needs in mind when we're asking this of you. You can't stay awake, you look like you're a dead man walking, you're empty inside. Something's changed in you." Marlene commented. I couldn't believe this right now.

"Whatever." I said sarcastically before turning to leave. I was upset and really couldn't do this room anymore. I stood up from my chair quickly and opened the door. I walked quickly out of the office to the outside. I needed air, it felt like I was suffocating in there. I felt the cool air hit my face, and I heard some voices around me, but I couldn't make out the words. They were all a jumble in my head. I tried to see who was there, but my vision was blurry. It felt like I was going to throw up, but there was nothing to throw up anymore. I put my hands on my knees, but they soon locked and I felt all of my muscles go weak as my body began to fall towards the ground. I wasn't conscious long enough to feel my body hit the ground.

Ian's P.O.V.

Ashley and I left the office quietly, waiting until we were outside to speak.

"I hope this goes well with her. Mar can talk some sense into her."

"I don't foresee any of this going well. She was pretty pissed when I brought it up earlier." I shook my head, knowing how stubborn Lucy could be.

"Gotta stay positive Harding. Are you going to wait for her?" She asked me and I contemplated. I was probably the last person she wanted to see right now, but I felt like I had to make things right.

"I guess so." I said after a bit of mental deliberation.

"Good luck with that." She smiled and turned away. At that moment Lucy came bursting through the doors to the production office. She was in a daze. I moved towards her, trying to calm her down. Ashley turned around to see what the commotion was about.

"Lucy, Luce, it's okay. Are you alright?" I asked, jogging over to her. She grabbed her head and stumbled around like she was drunk. I finally reached her as she put her hands on her knees.

"Can you hear me Luce?" I was worried, she was really out of it.

"Ashley, go get help!" I yelled at her and she ran back into the office.

"Lucy, Lucy." I called trying to get her attention just as she started to fall. I stuck my arms out and caught her before she hit the ground. I laid her on the pavement and spread her arms out slightly so she could breathe. She wasn't conscious, but I felt for her pulse. Why wasn't anyone coming to help.

"Somebody help me!" I yelled, trying to get someone's attention. My adrenaline was pumping and I wasn't comprehending completely what I was doing or what was happening. Soon Ashley came running back out of the office with Marlene hot on her heels, already on the phone.

"Alright, an ambulance is on the way. What happened?" She asked as she knelt down next to me.

"I don't know! She came running out of the office and she got a few steps outside and just collapsed."

"Did she hit her head?"

"No, I caught her before she hit the ground." I informed. The ambulance arrived shortly after and everything happened so fast. They put her in the ambulance and drove off, leaving the rest of us just standing there, worried, thinking about what just happened.

"Okay, who's her emergency contact?" Marlene asked.

"Annie." I said, as I was already calling her. I relayed the message to Annie, who said she was heading to the hospital immediately.

"We really can't afford to miss any days, but it seems that everyone is pretty shaken up. Why don't you guys head home, and I'll see you tomorrow. I'll try to get an update to you as soon as I know something." Marlene offered and Ashley and I accepted. I got into my car and drove out of the lot. In a spur of the moment decision, I turned left instead of right. I was going to the hospital.


End file.
